Leadership. Excellence. Innovation.
These words are easily claimed as part of a company’s vision for itself and words that most organizations strive to turn into reality but that few actually do.
At the European water operator MIYA, these words are values, and its values are promises — promises that define its continued growth and success, and ones that are at the heart of the company and its employees.
From water operations to water efficiency, MIYA champions a value-based, efficiency-driven approach to every water project it undertakes around the world, all the while staying true to its core promises, including not only leadership, excellence and innovation, but also integrity and trustworthiness, responsibility and accountability, and eco-efficiency.
Millions of People Connected to Water . . . and Counting
Multinational, world-leading and efficiency-oriented, MIYA is recognized around the globe for its cutting-edge, turn-key strategies for water resource and efficiency management.
Based in Madrid, Spain, MIYA was launched 15 years ago with the singular goal of building a better water future for global populations. The company was acquired in 2020 by Antin Infrastructure Partners, a leading independent private equity firm focused on infrastructure investments from Bridgepoint, a U.K.-based, major international private equity group.
Having connected over nine million people across five continents to water to date, MIYA provides water efficiency schemes, designing and implementing solutions that significantly improve clients’ operational efficiency. It also aims to reduce the carbon footprint from both within the company and projects it is engaged in, a priority in line with commitments made at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, October 31 – November 13.
Since its formation in 2007, MIYA has led countless large and complex projects, employing business best practices, water utility operational excellence and execution experience; best-of-class methodology; and financial modeling, ensuring cost-effective solutions, while introducing creative and flexible engagement models in alignment with the key interests and priorities of stakeholders.
A Tailored Approach to Water Resource Management
Through various business lines that comprise its expertise in both water operations and water efficiency, MIYA selects the best fit based on the client needs and conducts itself as a reliable and long-term business partner, working with clients towards a joint success.
For projects falling under water operations, MIYA offers vast knowledge and experience, as it implements water and operations solutions and procedures, which are designed to optimize the clients’ existing infrastructure, while increasing performance.
MIYA, in this area, provides global and long-term integrated solutions of management, investment, operation and maintenance — not restricted to clean water but also including wastewater municipal or industrial systems. This solution brings many key benefits, such as increasing service coverage and levels, and transferring financial effort and risk.
For projects classified as water efficiency, MIYA aims to improve efficiency mainly though non-revenue water (NRW) reduction, where it holds the largest accumulated experience in these types of projects around the world, having already executed over 200 projects in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, North America and South America.
Upon taking on a water efficiency project, MIYA implements a unique, four-step approach.
First, MIYA conducts an in-depth analysis of the client’s existing water system. Then, the company draws up a comprehensive work plan, outlining all activities, timing and resources necessary to carry out the project. Next, MIYA implements the plan, relying on its team of prominent experts to execute cutting-edge technology solutions, as it works toward achieving the defined plan objectives. Finally and most importantly, MIYA ensures these solutions are delivered through strategic KPIs throughout the entire of the project; this is done by conducting ongoing reviews of project performance and knowledge transferal to entire team — including both MIYA and client staff — through regular training, knowledge sharing, cross cooperation and a continuous partnership. These efforts create a successful delivery of results, with the goal being not only achieving the intended result of the solution itself, but both longevity and performance of the solution in the long-term.
As an additional level of service, the company partners with world-leading suppliers to help deliver the necessary performance management and technical assistance, where MIYA ensures the transfer of accumulated knowledge, and technical and practical know-how to those initiating or re-engineering the business processes. This assures an increase of overall system sustainability, as well as client public image improvement and a growth of qualified and skilled human resources.
A Proven Track Record of Success
MIYA consistently puts its values and strategy into practice — evidenced by the success of its numerous completed and ongoing projects.
Most notable are its projects in Portugal, the Philippines, Jamaica and the Bahamas, where it has worked alongside local companies to drastically increase water availability to communities through the reduction of NRW.
In Portugal through MIYA’s subsidiary INDAQUA, NRW — which is usually at or above 30% — fell to below 20%, and physical losses were reduced to 10%, increasing allowable coverage to the area’s some 250,000 people.
In the Philippines, MIYA’s 2008-2014 project with private water utility Maynilad successfully led to a reduction in NRW from 63% to 34%. The 29% savings allowed for an additional three million people to be connected to the potable water system, making it one of the largest NRW projects completed worldwide to due in terms of water loss savings achieved.
Ongoing projects in Jamaica and the Bahamas have already achieved similar success through MIYA’s direction, with respective NRW reductions of 20% and 43%. For the former, MIYA is working with Jamaica’s National Water Commission (NWC), and its current savings of 70 million liters of water per day allows for an adequate supply to more than 600,000 people. For the latter, MIYA’s 10-year contract with the Bahamas Water and Sewage Corporation has already shown a savings of 18 million liters of water per day and over the project period an accumulative total exceeding 46 billion liters of water.
Excellence on the World Stage
MIYA’s prowess as a forward-thinking water company has not gone unrecognized.
Its unmatched success over the past 15 years has earned it back-to-back Project Innovation Awards from the International Water Association in 2013 and 2014. MIYA’s projects in the Philippines and the Bahamas also granted it a place on the Global Water Intelligence’s (GWI) shortlist for the Performance Initiative of the Year Prize in 2014.
Accoladed again by GWI, MIYA won the Project of the Year Award in 2010 for a project in South Africa and the Sustainability Award in 2009.
Last, but certainly not least, MIYA and NWC were jointly given the prestigious Water and Energy Exchange Award for Innovation in the Field of Infrastructure in 2020 in recognition of the major accomplishments achieved as a result of the strategic water distribution efficiency project in Jamaica.
A Leader to Others
MIYA, however, does not stop there.
While actively engaging in current projects, revisiting past contracts to ensure longevity and prospecting out new plans for communities around the globe affected by water supply issues, it also regularly produces thought leadership pieces as part of its online Knowledge Center.
Its team of experts, unrivaled in their field, continue to publish industry-leading papers as well as author books, sharing their and MIYA’s exclusive perspectives and wealth of topical experience.
Among these invaluable resources are case studies, technical deep dives on water resource management, and articles on NRW system analysis and modeling, as well as pieces educating local utilities how to meet with their populations through social intervention to discuss the importance of water conservation and of remaining vigilant of illegal water connections.
Read more about MIYA, non-revenue water (NRW) and Jordan’s dire situation with water scarcity in Venture’s “Meeting the Challenges of Water Scarcity.”
By Adam Robertson
